kerry's job i think will be to serve obama's legacy, and he is going to have to work within an obama system that four years in is fairly well defined. the big issues are run out of the white house. they're run by a small group of people around the president, but it will be interesting to see how kerry changes the mix a bit. for example, you were just talking about hillary clinton and women's issues. kerry has been a leader on climate issues. will he be able to tip the scales a little bit in that direction and actually build on what the president said in his inaugural address about making climate a priority? >> kerry has said he wants to focus on the middle east, and that has been a deficit in terms of the israeli-palestinian track. certainly, i mean, the arab spring made it much more difficult, much more complicated, but some would argue made it more necessary. >> well, yeah. the middle east is also one of the drains that can suck all the oxygen out of the room. you know, you could get involved in it and get sucked down all these different kind of rabbit holes that exist in the middl